Speaking to students at the University of Belgrade as part of his three-day tour of Serbia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg explained that the bombing of Yugoslavia was not aimed against ordinary Serbs, but against President Slobodan Milosevic.

NATO carried out a 78-day campaign of airstrikes against Yugoslavia in 1999 after accusing Belgrade of committing war crimes in Kosovo. The strikes left as many as 5,700 civilians dead, and contaminated part of the region with depleted uranium, leading to a spike in juvenile cancer rates.